Powerlock 30-day challenge 5257

Tried to use the pliers to loosen the hot & cold water supplies for the washer, but the space was just too confined. In the end I used some slip joint pliers to loosen the hoses up. This is no hit on the Powerlock, just a realistic limitation due to a large 'nut' in a confined space.

You could always give it a nose job on a bench grinder, but then you give up the needle nose functionality.

I do kinda like the reach one gets with needle nose pliers. And I don't have any gripes with the SOG pliers at this point. I'll continue to point out situations (as come up) where the needle nose either is better for the job or isn't. The whole reason we have a diversity of knives, pliers, and drivers, is that each has it's virtue....and limitation. No one multitool is going to be perfect for every situation.

I'm not a working man....unless working at being lazy is a job...and I tend to look for multitools that will be good companions for EDC, fishing, camping, hunting, etc..... For my life, needle nose makes a bit more sense. I think. But I've never carried a blunt nose multitool, so I'm certainly open to changing my mind. I do have a birthday coming up.........

The Powerlock worked well here. The blade is sharp and slices well. This task did highlight a disadvantage of having an internally folding knife blade (as opposed to outside opening knife): since the knife faces inward, the second handle prevents the blade from making full-length contact with a cutting board, except when working off the very edge. To make many of these cuts, I had to use a drawing or pulling cut with the tip of the knife. Not a big deal, but definitely not as agile as a regular paring knife.

In a pinch, I have used inboard toolset blades with the pliers deployed and handles open to facilitate flush surface cutting. The PL is not terrible that way. But, to be honest, I don't like MT blades in general (inboard or outboard). It is like a knife with brick handle.

With SOG's compound leverage, it's a bit tougher to use the inboard knife with the pliers opened, but that too is doable.

I have poked myself more than once trying to use a SOG implement with the handles extended like I do with the Spirit and Leathermans The Blacktip's long and slender plier jaws are like deadly spears waiting to stab you!!

I got the chance to head up into the hills to do a little fishing today.......

Really nice day and not too hot. I headed for a stream where I've been successful before. I knew the water would be high and feared it would be muddy from all the recent rain, but it looked pretty good:

While I remembered the Powerlock, I forgot to bring the insect repellent. This would prove to be a major oversight......

Because I anticipated high water and muddy conditions, I decided to bring a spinning rod. This was not the best choice. While I got a few nice casts in and hoped for a result.....I got skunked.

Part of my failure was due to poor gear selection, but part was also due to an active and continual running battle with a horde of mosquitoes. I tried to cover up, but they exploited any opening. When they decide to try crawling up my nose, I made a tactical withdrawal and tried to make it back to the truck.

On my way, I ran into a barbed wire entanglement, clearly designed to entrap the unwary fisherman, leaving said poor soul to the merciless mosquitoes.

I have to say the Powerlock was impressive in cutting the wire fairly easily. I don't think I've had another multitool cut double-stranded barbed wire as easily as the Powerlock.

Once cleared of the barbed wire, I made my way back to the truck and headed home. Bruised, bloodied, and humiliated, but now with a new bottle of DEET.

The PAD is packed with features and tools. That's nice. And the compound mechanism of the PAD is more elegant than the Powerlock's shrouded approach. That's nice, too.

In my case, if the quality of the PAD was up at the Powerlock level, I think the PAD might be the superior tool, but right now, I like the Powerlock much better for it's fit, feel, and function (yeah, I did have some issues with the scissors, but a bit of peening seems to have improved those.).

I feel that it's like SOG should learn a thing or two from Victorinox ,

1 - you should wait enough (1, 5 or 10 years) to put out and release a new tool that beats or improves your previous offerings, if the tool you're releasing doesn't have an alternative use or completely different function than the previous ones, and it's just meant to be the evolution of those, it should be better or at least improved in some obvious upgrades

I feel like SOG is worsening their lineup, not the opposite, and they trust the "lots of new releases in short time" model of business to be successful,thus making quality and reputation suffer

2 - learn how to make scissors if you're gonna put them on your tools! In all sizes and versions, scissors should cut things!!!